


The Partridge Falters

by kirogaraii



Series: A Bitter Sweet World : ShuuKazu [8]
Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: (a little bit of it), (compared to the previous this is a more hang-out-y chapter), (making the school more lively by adding more staff fan-characters!), BitterSweet AU : ShuuKazu, Developing Friendships, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, Niwashi Pan (Original Character), Other, Tragedy/Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24166309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirogaraii/pseuds/kirogaraii
Summary: Kazuaki has been holding his feelings inside for a surprisingly long time. Scared and defeated by everything, emotionally and physically, he finally reveals what troubles him... and Shuu listens, patiently. He seems surprisingly invested, doesn’t he?(pt. 2/2 of a long-chapter)
Relationships: Iwamine Shuu/Nanaki Kazuaki (Original)
Series: A Bitter Sweet World : ShuuKazu [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1623460
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	The Partridge Falters

“Hiya, professor!!”

Kazuaki felt a shadow loom over him as he sat beneath a tall oak, in the middle of a grassy field hill. He looked up, quickly putting on a nervous smile.

“Ah! It’s you, miss Tosaka~” the quail chirped, “I-Is everything okay?”

“Yup, yup. I was just wondering if I could sit next to you, sir.” she stretched one leg out with an exaggerated expression. Kazuaki tilted his head, “Really? Wouldn’t you like to join the other boys instead? I-I mean, um, of course, if you’d like.”

“Thank youuu~!” she said as she plopped down next to the huge king quail. “The weather is almost too good for a class hike today! My legs are killing me!”

“Ahh, yes, it might be a bit hotter than anticipated… Maybe I should’ve brought more water bottles…” Kazuaki wiped his forehead with one wing, while cradling a bento box with the other.

“Fufu, you must be doing even worse than me!” Hiyoko grinned, “With that fluffy plumage and a scarf on!”

“Ee… I wear a scarf pretty much the whole year~ I’m sure that I’d freeze to death without it even now…!”

“Seriously?! Sir! Is all that interacting with the doctor making you lose your marbles too?!

I’m almost sure that doctor Iwamine would wear a full wooly coat in this weather too. Gotta keep that cold heart beating somehow.” she joked.

“Hahaha…” a forced laugh escaped Kazuaki’s lips. Well, it’s not like Hiyoko is wrong about that last part.

“But now, for real, professor…” Hiyoko took on a more discreet and genuine demeanor, “...How are you doing? The recent weeks haven’t been so good, but then we were all surprised when you announced that the hike wouldn’t be delayed anymore…”

Kazuaki looked off into distance for a minute, mildly embarrassed and distressed. It  _ was _ embarrassing to be so acknowledged by everyone, especially students, but somehow he also appreciated Hiyoko’s curiosity. He started off by chuckling in his throat. “Mhmhm, y-yes… Um, I’m feeling better today. I hope that I’ll be able to teach you all very properly… soon…”

“Well that’s good! We’re all supporting you, sensei!” she chimed, endlessly optimistic.

“Thank you, that's very kind of you…”

Kazuaki looked down at his bento and finally lifted the lid open to reveal it’s… not filled with a diverse and colorful lunch-image inside, but literally just sunflower and safflower seeds. Hiyoko peeked in curiously. “Whatchu eatin- oh.” she smiled, “Birb food!”

“Birb food…” repeated the professor with a somewhat dramatic weakened smile, “Nutritious and healthy for all birbs… More than delicious cereal… What a sad reality…”

“It’s not like sunflower seeds are bad-tasting, right?! I love sunflower seeds too! A good munchy snack to eat in the evening while relaxing in my abode! Or doing homework, of course… of course.”

“Yes, sunflower is pretty nice~ I always thought it’s sort of bland, though… Like rice without any butter or seasoning… To think that my ancestors ate nothing but stuff like this…”

“Well! At least you have lunch! I don’t!” Hiyoko said that, brimming with energy regardless, “Itadakimasu, professor!”

Kazuaki sighed mournfully, “Itadakimasuuuu…” and scribbled his feathers around in the grains, in search of finding the perfect sunflower seed...or rather his appetite. Until… “...huh?”

He pulled out not a grain of sunflower or a grain of safflower, but a little brown feather from between the layers of seed. Kazuaki twirled it in his wing to inspect in the light, “A feather~? What are you doing here~?”

“Ooo! What kind of feather is it?” Hiyoko balled her fists with equal enthusiasm about feathers as her teacher. More energetic though, obviously.

“It’s a down feather, small and round… Light brown, two black stripes, with one creamy bar in the middle…” described Kazuaki sweetly, “How did it get here? Are there even any brown-and-black-striped-and-creamy birds in the school?”

“Hmm… Well I don’t know each and every bird, of course, but…” Hiyoko thought for a moment while cupping her chin, “uuum… No, I don’t know who it could be- unless? There is one bird with this color scheme!”

Kazuaki turned to her hopefully.

“The fluffy heretic himself! How could I forget about him!”

“W-What!” he looked at the feather again, “T-That’s right! You must be right!”

“How on earth did the doctor’s feathers get in your lunch, professor?!”

“Wah!” Kazuaki flinched very pitifully, “Are you mad at me…?!”

“I am bewildered and beyond curious!” The girl crosses her arms, “Did you pack your lunch near the doctor, Nanaki?”

“Wah you’re calling me by my name!” teary quail squeaks. “But um! um… well… hmm…”

Hiyoko’s eyes widened even more at Kazuaki’s descend into thought. She made herself more comfortable in the grass and suggested smugly, “How’d it happen, huh, mister? Spill the beans! ...pun intended.”

Kazuaki is twirled the little striped feather as a smile crept onto his face. He laughed sheepishly, “Hmm, when could it happen…”

He put his entire focus into it…

* * *

The professor and the doctor left the staff room with a tad more energy than when they entered. As the cafeteria is not directly connected to the school building, they went downstairs, and headed in that direction through the hallway connecting the two buildings together.

“D-Do you think the cafeteria will still be open?” Kazuaki asked, lacing his own fingers.

“It isn’t that late. Some students are definitely still lurking around the rooms to clean up after club activities.” Shuu explained calmly, fiddling with the keys inside his coat pocket, making them jingle. “Either a student from the cafeteria club, or the host should still be there as well. And if there isn’t, then we’ll simply… break in.”

“BREAK IN?!!” a gasp, “We’re gonna break into the cafeteria for some bird seed?!”

“Don’t make it sound like a crime.”

The cafeteria itself was open. Through the windows, they saw that it was empty. The last student on duty must’ve left recently after they cleaned the floors. But what’s more important is the actual kitchen, which can only be entered through the metal door in the corner.

Shuu has already pulled out his set of keys and searched around for the one that would open this cursed door. Why does the doctor own so many school keys, more than most teachers? Well that is between him and god. Or the headmaster, more likely.

“Wait!” Kazuaki tapped Shuu on the shoulder, “S-Shouldn’t we at least try making sure that it’s empty before inviting ourselves in?!”

Shuu looked at Kazuaki, and at the glass counter. From where they were standing, the view into the kitchen was relatively broad and it seemed clear and empty. “...I suppose.” He shrugged.

“Yes.” Kazuaki nodded.

And then they were standing there.

Kazuaki leaned down to whisper to Shuu. “So, um… who should raise their voice?”

The doctor rolled his eyes and scowled something, but then cleared his throat…

“Excuse us!”

Shuu called out at a regular volume, but irregular by his standards, into the pristine kitchen. What answered was his echo.

“Is there anybody present in the cafeteria kitchen!”

Just as he was about to return to looking for the right key, the two men heard a loud metallic crash from within the kitchen, followed by a high pitched screech. Kazuaki screeched as well; “W-W-Who is there!!”

Shuu only tilted his head curiously.

“Waaait~ Hold ooon~ I’m cominng~”

Shockingly enough, in a school of almost exclusively male staff and students, what they heard was a feminine voice, and it wasn’t Miss Tosaka’s.

Followed by the sound of stumbling feet, from around the corner and some metallic carriages. And finally a new character entered the picture; a sandy-colored chicken hen, specifically of the barbu d’uccle species.

“Aah, I got so scared…! It’s the two gentlemen! Good afternoon, professor Nanaki!”

Miss Pan Niwashi is not a very important bird at school, aside from being responsible for the St. Pigeonation’s cafeteria. She doesn’t have a strong presence, and her roaming is mostly limited to the kitchen and the staff room. Students might describe her as ‘nice’ and teachers might describe her as ‘bubbly’. An aunt character whose defining personality trait is that she wants everyone in the school to be well-nourished.

“Hi miss Niwashi~” Kazuaki greeted her with a very gentle head nod. Pan had a slightly stressed smile on her face up until she realized that the smaller and more grim character standing by Kazuaki, is none other than doctor Iwamine. She flinched at the sight, even though Shuu hasn’t said or done anything. “A-And the doctor, I see! Um, what can I help you with?”

“We were interested in buying beans, slash seeds.” answered Shuu firm and clean. “The school store is closed by now, but I am certain that there are still ingredients as such available in the kitchen.”

“Oh, okay, I see. Well that’s true! But no no, you absolutely don’t have to pay me for them! It’d be really mean of me to charge my co-workers for beans. They should be as available to everyone as tap water!” Pan flashed a smile, “Just tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll see if I’ll find them in the back~”

“...If you say so. We’d be very thankful.” Shuu eyed Kazuaki beside him without budging. “...Do you have sunflower and or safflower?”

“That, definitely! Anything else? For whom is it?”

“For professor Nanaki… Who is too cowardly to ask for them himself.”

Kazuaki made a sound resembling a muffled “what!!”

“O-Oh, okay, okay, wait here, please…”

Pan quickly backtracked into the kitchen while fixing the bow of her apron. Another minute of silence for them.

“...Miss Niwashi is very nice, isn’t she~”

“It hasn’t struck my attention whether her behavior just now was any different from her behavior on other occasions.” Shuu slurred out, “You two are similar though, I suppose, so I can see why you’re fond of her.”

“Similar?!” Kazuaki put a hand over his mouth. He pinched his own cheek very self-consciously, “I-In what sense…”

Shuu shrugged apathetically, “The language and enunciations. You both have curly hair, too, I suppose.”

“oh.” That made Kazuaki fluster and return to his stiff standing pose again. “okey.”

_ barbu d’uccle hens have very fluffy cheeks. _

Pan returned to the two gentlemen with two lunch-sized bags, one with safflower, and one with sunflower seeds. She handed them to Kazuaki, exchanging “Here you go!” and “Thank you!” clucks.

Then her eyes landed on Shuu again, who stared back at her with a much more dead and exhausted expression. Eerie.

Suddenly she pulled out something from beneath the counter. “There’s, um, something for you too, Iwamine.”

She placed on top of the counter an ambiguous orb. Shuu looked at it, blinked, slowly fixing his glasses. “...For me?”

“A suet cake!” Pan picked it up to show Shuu the label on the other side. Loud and clear;

_ ‘Peckin’ Good: Suet Ball (100% Natural ingredients. High energy snack suited for most birds.)’ _

“...Why are you gifting it to me?”

“...Uhu…” Pan scratched the back of her head, “Well, um, doctor, I hope you don’t take offense by it, but you’re really super skinny, and you never take any of the snacks I prepare for you teachers in the staff room, so… if you’re already here… I wouldn’t mind giving you  _ five _ at once…”

Shuu stared at her with incredible blankness. Except now his eyebrows were raised a little. His stare bored into Pan so effectively that she started shivering already.

“B-B-But I mean, if you don’t want to, then you don’t have to!-”

“I, um…” Shuu very delicately picked the ball with his hand, and proceeded to hold it with both hands like it’s an injured little chick. “...Okay. Thank you.”

Refusing gifts isn’t nice. He can at least pretend to like it.

“Uwaa now I’m jealous~!” Kazuaki cradled his own bags of seed like babies too, but fondly gazed at the apparently more delicious snack in Shuu’s possession. “Suet is very yummy~ My mom gave me these for lunch sometimes when I was in preschool…”

“I can give it to you if you want.” He held the ball up for Kazuaki.

“You would do that~?!”

“...You seem more excited about it than me.”

“I’d eat it whole in two minutes!” —the ball was roughly the size of a bell pepper. Hearing that, Shuu put on an intrigued expression, “Oh really? I’d be impressed. In that case, I’ll keep it for a special occasion so that you can show me that skill.”

“I’ve mastered the art of eating suet balls~” Kazuaki attempted to make that sound cool.

“Um, gentlemen,” Pan tried to get their attention with a peep, “I’m glad you’re gonna enjoy your meals! The cafeteria is gonna officially close for the day soon! You should go!”

“R-Right, oh shit! Sorry, uh, thank you, uh, have a nice day bye!”

Kazuaki didn’t know if he should bow or wave but he already began heading back to the exit, and instinctively, he pulled Shuu along with him by the sleeve of his lab coat. Shuu limply obliged. Pan and him maintained eye contact up until a wall finally came between them.

…And so they found a spot in the school yard to sit down, take out a pen and a book, and decide a weekly plan for Kazuaki while he nibbled on the newly obtained seeds. Shuu drew a weekplan in the professor’s notebook, highlighting what are the things that he should achieve in the coming days.

As they were sitting on the same bench, not particularly far apart, and Kazuaki kept reaching into his bundle of grain as the hour went on…

Yes, there is a chance that the chukar partridge scratched himself at some point, and a loose feather flew out and right into the seeds without either of them noticing.

* * *

“...It must’ve happened when I ate lunch yesterday with the doctor beside me…”

“You two are eatin’ lunch together?!”

Hiyoko gestured with her hands, conveying that it blew her mind, “That’s crazy! I don’t know what’s crazier, the image of the fluffy partridge eating those little seeds for lunch, or the idea of you two hanging out and forming friendships! How hasn’t he slain you yet?”

“Eeh! It’s not like that!! Iwamine wasn’t eating anything!! I was the one eating! He was just there, and uh, watching me…”

“Observing you eat while completely uninterested himself? Well okay, now that’s a much creepier image… Way more in-character for the doctor.” she winked, “But be careful, sensei. He might’ve slipped something in there without you noticing.”

“Noo… I don’t think he’d do that… That’d be illegal and wrong~” Kazuaki sounded very confident in these words, putting the little striped feather into the depths of his bag.

“Hey! Hiyoko! Hey! Come here!!”

The voice of a familiar rock dove called for her from atop of another hill, waving his wings.

“We found a pond! There’s so many frogs!”

“Woah!! I’m coming, hold on!!!” Hiyoko yelled back even louder, jumping up to her feet. She gave a quick glance to Kazuaki, “Thanks for lending me your shade, sire! See ya in a few minutes!!”

She was already off when Kazuaki weakly called out a goodbye as well, “O-Okay see you! Don’t go too far off, please! We have to go… soon…”

…Well, embracing his bird instincts, the quail pecked into his bento of grain a few times, munching on the seeds. He didn’t feel invigorated yet, he thought, but he definitely needs to eat this by the time he gets back home, at least. According to the scheduled plan.

Staring off into the clear blue sky, chewing the plain but nutritious grain, Kazuaki reminisced even deeper about yesterday.

_ “Um can I ask a question about earlier, when you listened to my ranting…” _

_ “What is it?” Shuu looked up from the notebook to make eye contact with Kazuaki, but Kazuaki himself was staring elsewhere anyway. He recalled the question in his head with a serious look in his eyes. _

_ “...What did you mean when you said… _

_ ‘at least you have the privilege of him being alive’?” _

_ Silence. Five seconds of silence pass, prompting Kazuaki’s gaze to return to the man ahead of him. Shuu did not budge, his eyes still frozen into Kazuaki’s. For a moment it seemed like his shoulders stopped raising up and down, like he stopped breathing. The quail furrowed his brows in concern, the other’s face managed to get even paler than it usually is. _

_ Shuu’s eyes fluttered, he returned to the task at hand. _

_ “Nothing.” he answered slowly, his voice breathy. “It did not mean anything. I quoted something without thinking, my mistake. It’s a nonsensical philosophy from people who aren’t depressed, isn’t it? _

_ ‘You think your life is bad? At least you are alive. Appreciate that you are alive, you scum. Take everything for granted, because there are people who have it infinitely worse than you.’ _

_ You are depressed and confused because you don’t know if you love or hate Uzune. If I were one of those snobby people, I’d tell you that you have no reason to cry, because at least you have both of your hands and both of your legs. _

_ But I’m not that kind of person. Your situation simply reminded me of it. And I said it out loud on accident.” _

_ Shuu continued to draw keywords in Kazuaki’s weekplan. _

_ “Don’t think about it, Nanaki.” _

_ Kazuaki doubted it, more and more as Shuu miserably explained himself. People can come up with a dozen sentences to excuse themselves when they’re covering a lie. But he is too tired, and the topic made him distressed on the inside. He wouldn’t want to push it right now, not yet. _

_ “Okay.” _

_ He said, thinking if there is someone Iwamine misses too. _

_ “Let’s talk about Friday.” Shuu began, lounging on the wooden bench with a pen and paper, “On Friday, you should…” _

“Professoooor!!”

A voice sweet as candy ripped Kazuaki out of his memories. His eyes darted over the nearby hills, until he finally spotted three of his students farther away, gesturing him to come over.

“Help! There is an injured pre-evolved bird! Come look!”

“Oh, oh no! Hold on, I’m coming~!”

The definitely evolved quail packed his bento and grabbed his bag, getting up to run after his students with endless vitality.

That suspicious memory dispersed into the far back of his memory, as Kazuaki moved on with his teacher duties.

Their return to school will be a little delayed, definitely. The tree atop of a hill was left alone, with some sunflower seeds scattered in the grass.

**Author's Note:**

> Oookay... A bit more lighthearted compared to the previous, so I thought it’d look strange if I put it all into one chapter. My Hatoful fan-oc makes an appearance! Pan Niwashi is generally a more bold character but she is incredibly anxious and nervous around Shuu... (dun dun dun, she’s also an ex-hawk from the same labs, hence why...)
> 
> Shuu’s awkwardness is displayed. Kazuaki starts to suspect something very important about him, the mad lad.
> 
> Anyway anyway, thank you for keeping up with this series, again! ^o^
> 
> (...whoosh...soon a special golden boy will appear...)


End file.
